Blas Perez' confidence returns after performance at San Jose

He found it in San Jose on Saturday night, netting his first MLS brace and becoming the first FC Dallas player to score two goals in a match this season.

It’s a welcome development for a team that is fighting for its playoff life with just three matches left in the 2012 season.

“What you saw of Blas against the best team in the league is what we were seeing just prior to his injury,” FC Dallas coach Schellas Hyndman said. “He was just getting there, he was just starting to get sharp. He was just starting to control his emotions. Players were just starting to know how to use him.”

The last goal Perez scored before Saturday was at Real Salt Lake on Memorial Day weekend. A few weeks later in June, he was injured while playing for his native Panama in a World Cup qualifier and wound up missing more than two months of matches.

“That injury, I don’t even want to talk about it because I missed almost thirteen games and for me it was very sad those two and a half months, almost three, that I wasn’t able to play with the team,” Perez said through a translator.

Perez returned to action on Aug. 28 at Los Angeles as a sub and has played the full 90 minutes in three subsequent matches vs. Seattle, Vancouver and San Jose.

Perez said his two goals against San Jose were big because it gives him confidence as a striker. He currently leads the team with seven goals this season.

“Now that he’s back and David’s on the field and the team is on all cylinders moving forward, he’s starting to show his true value to this team, which we had hoped for last year when we went out and brought him to FC Dallas,” Hyndman said.

With a must-win match this weekend at Chivas USA (6 p.m. CT on FSSW Plus), Perez said he is focused on doing everything he can to help FC Dallas win.

“We can’t have negative thoughts, from now we have to think positive. It’s nine points, and we have to get those nine points,” Perez said.